Saturday, November 26, 2011

February 2011, Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese, Photos of what once was beauty

We have just posted some September 2011 photos of the Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese.

A little bit earlier, we posted photos of a grove of excellent trees, about 105, about half a mile east of the Destroyed Nesting Area. This excellent grove is on the verge of being destroyed for what the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the City of Cambridge, and their apologists call “improvement.”

We have also posted photos of the pristine Alewife reservation, excellent massive trees with untold animals within sight of the Boston Red Line’s Alewife Station.

Last I heard, the powers that be claimed to be destroying the Alewife reservation for flood storage to protect North Cambridge. They are protecting against the worst flooding event to occur every two years, a two year storm, in an area which has seen two fifty year storms in the last twenty years. Directly across the street from this outrage is a massive parking lot which could readily handle fifty year storms.

The massive parking lot is not being destroy for what would be real value. The jewel of the core Alewife Reservation is being destroyed for a cause that cannot be achieved but which can be achieved across the street.

Winter is coming at the destroyed nesting area of the Charles River White Geese.

The following are photos which were taken on February 13, 2011. I will walk you through the area as I took the photos.

To avoid repeating myself, all areas of destruction in the Destroyed Nesting Area were destroyed to this date.

We have had a meeting and site view with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation which is doing the work.

MassDOT accurately told us that the plans were written by the DCR and MassDOT was stuck with them.

The area next to the BU Bridge needed to be destroyed for access to the BU Bridge to do work, but that work was over in February 2011 when these photos were taken. This is the western part of the Destroyed Nesting Area.

The area next to the on ramp to Memorial Drive should not have been destroyed in the first place. There was ample places in the area which are not sensitive which could have been used without this destruction.

The destruction occurred and continues.

This photo was taken approaching the destroyed nesting area from the west.

The road curving from left to right and then to left again is the BU Bridge rotary. It is under Memorial Drive.

Note the total absence of anything in that part of the BU Bridge rotary which is visible. Nothing is there because what should have been put there was used to destroy part of the nesting area of the Charles River White Geese.

Straight ahead, where the cars are pointing, is the on ramp to Memorial Drive from the BU Bridge / the BU Bridge rotary. At the bottom of the picture, barely visible, is another roadway. It is the off ramp from Memorial Drive to the BU Bridge / the BU Bridge rotary.

Beyond the traffic cones is an area which used to connect to the BU Bridge. That area is now part of the construction zone for work on the near side of the BU Bridge. Straight ahead and to the right is the BU Bridge.

The very large concrete and green structure straight ahead is Boston University’s School of Law, located on the south, opposite, side of the BU Bridge.

Immediately below BU Law and straight ahead in the picture but below the street level and not visible is the Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese.

This photo is taken from the BU Bridge. You are looking primarily at the biggest tree in the Destroyed Nesting Area, plus some Whites and some Canadas.

This area was heavily vegetated until the vegetation was destroyed by the DCR / its representatives. The failure of the vegetation to grow back indicates poisoning.

The items in the foreground are in the destroyed part of the Destroyed Nesting Area.

Again taken from the BU Bridge. To the right is the eastern side of the BU Bridge. The vast emptiness used to be natural habitat. As you can see, at the time of this photograph, it was simply empty.

Straight ahead is the core part of the Boston University campus, west of the School of Law. Below of it can be seen a sliver of the Charles River. Below that is the Grand Junction Railroad Bridge. The white area between that and the BU Bridge is the snow and ice covered Charles River. The trees are at the edge of the Destroyed Nesting Area. The line is the end of the BU Bridge construction destruction.

The structure to the left of the line are structures blocking access to the unused wasteland.

This photo is of the area beyond the artificially created wasteland next to the BU Bridge. The structure at the top is a bridge support in the middle of the Charles River.

The Charles River White Geese are enjoying a small part of the river which is not frozen.

Minimally changed land abutting the river is at the bottom of the photo.

The geese are excellently adapted for this environment. They have lived free here for 30 years. They have goose down jackets. Their biggest problem is that the DCR and Cambridge are deliberately starving them.

This photo is taken of the view in the opposite direction from the prior photo, with the camera moving north.

The totally unnecessary destruction is straight ahead. Immediately above it is the hillside which is the northern extremity of the Destroyed Nesting Area. Above that is the on ramp to Memorial Drive. Then Memorial Drive. Then a building now owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, formerly owned by Polaroid Corporation and before that by Ford Motor Company.

Photo from the top of the staircase illegally constructed as part of an apparently unwritten (and thus illegal) agreement with the DCR by Boston University at the eastern end of the ramp to Memorial Drive.

This used to be beautiful, and the snow hides the worst of the destruction. Beneath the snow is a very significant part of dirt created by the destruction of ground vegetation by the DCR / its agents. To the right can barely be seen that portion of the construction zone which constituted totally useless destruction.

Straight ahead is the BU Bridge. Above the BU Bridge is a new dormitory complex built on top of what was an historical armory, which a lot of people thought BU should not destroy.

As I recall, the agreement by which BU obtained the armory is another of those strange agreements.

Whites and Canadas under the big tree, Charles and BU Bridge in the background.

Whites admire the water of the Charles River. Canadas feeding below them. Above them are the supports for the Grand Junction bridge. Taken from the eastern part of the Destroyed Nesting Area between the big tree and the water, another area formerly heavily vegetated, vegetation destroyed.

The Whites enjoy the Charles and some free water. Taken below the wasteland that was needed for access to the BU Bridge but which still has not been returned to nature. Artificial wall blocking off wasteland can be seen to the right.

A further distance shot of the previous. The plastic wall is seen again with apparently stronger support above.

View from close to the previous location looking up at the empty no longer needed access area at the BU Bridge.

Additional view of the previous, camera moving slightly to the east, nothing there. The Ford / Polaroid / MIT building is above and to the right.

This used to be a heavily vegetated woods.

It is the hillside below the Grand Junction, taken from below the large tree.

Visible are Charles River White Geese and Canadas.

Photo from the illegally constructed staircase. The never sensible construction area is to the right. The artificially created dirt is straight ahead. There is some view, under the snow, of the little bit of ground vegetation which has not been destroyed. At the top is the Charles, the BU Bridge and those dormitories which used to be a historical armory and which have the strange history.

About Me

Sponsored by Friends of the White Geese, Bob La Trémouille, chair/editor. Friends of the White Geese has worked since 2000 and has been a recognized Massachusetts, USA non-profit organization since 2001. Our goal is to defend the environment on the Charles River in Cambridge, MA, USA.